By means of such a pressure measurement device, it is possible, by way of example, to determine the pressure in an individual reservoir in a common rail system in a particularly reliable manner. Such a system has been described in DE 10 2009 002 793 A1 or in DE 10 2006 034 515 B3 by the applicant. In these cases, the advantages of a common rail system having an individual reservoir are applied.
Moreover, other measurement devices can be connected in principle to a high-pressure component. Overall, the system named above serves the purpose of influencing an injection start and an injection end of the injector, and therefore significantly influencing the quality of the combustion and the composition of the exhaust gases in an internal combustion engine. In order to comply with the threshold value stipulated by law, the injection start and the injection end, among other things, are regulated as parameters by an electronic device. In practice, in the case of an internal combustion engine having a common rail system, the problem arises that a time shift arises between the start of flow in the injector, the lift of the injector needle, and the actual start of injection. The same applies accordingly to the end of the injection. Imprecision in the regulation of the start of injection and the end of injection eventually leads to imprecision as concerns the fuel volume fed to the internal combustion engine.
Despite precise sensors, the concept named above can lead to imprecisions —for example due to injection behaviors which vary with the lifetime of the injectors. Moreover, it is desirable to be able to make a concrete diagnosis of, and address, the causes of a failure, malfunctions, or other drifts of injectors.